LED Tail light concept

[Alec_fields]

Sketch of a concept I'm working on for my tail lights. I'm going to do a sequential blink for the turn signals. All red LEDs, the bars with the red liner under them will just be the running night lights and black lines will be the turn signals and break lights. It should be noticable enough as a breaklight because it will still be solid on one side and there is the 3rd break light bar on top still. I ordered a Sh*t load of tri-chip LEDs from Hong Kong to start. The mock up will be up on here in a few weeks. Lemme know what ya think.

From concept to early design.... It's going to look a little different after the lenses go on but........

In other primers opinions, are these worthy of an NSX?

[Hapa88]

I say NO to the individual LED idea. It's just way too played out and a ton of people that have already done it on the NSX. Lastly I think the individual LEDs are falling out of favor for the cleaner solid bar look instead.

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[Alec_fields]

I plan on the final product being sort of a cross of the two. It won't be a solid bar but each individual LED won't be the only part producing light that you can see. I'm working with different things to refract the light evenly over an area withought losing light and making them dimmer. In 2 weeks or so I'll have the pics of the first mock up on here.

[comtec]

I agree with Hapa,

LED's need a lens to produce what you see on the oem cars and the only lens' i have seen available are for individual LEDs. There are things
you can do to simulate a lens on multiple LED's at the same time but with any lens or refraction there will be a loss in lumens.


Mike

[Blue Batmobile]

would love to see a light bar idea implimented on an nsx!

B@t

[Alec_fields]

Slowly changing any opinions? I know it's hard to tell though without the lenses on there.

[Russ]

Sketch of a concept I'm working on for my tail lights. I'm going to do a sequential blink for the turn signals. All red LEDs, the bars with the red liner under them will just be the running night lights and black lines will be the turn signals and break lights. It should be noticable enough as a breaklight because it will still be solid on one side and there is the 3rd break light bar on top still. I ordered a Sh*t load of tri-chip LEDs from Hong Kong to start. The mock up will be up on here in a few weeks. Lemme know what ya think.

From concept to early design.... It's going to look a little different after the lenses go on but........

In other primers opinions, are these worthy of an NSX?

I like it a lot, the design is dynamic and it looks like it will play well with the existing shape of the NSX lenses. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Alec_fields]

Photoshop concept application. Only a few more days till the installed photos are up.... waiting on the JDM tails

[huck-jai]

That looks like a whole lot of led's. Honestly not feeling the design. Looks too busy.

[s4play]

I'd like to see the final product but your photochop reminds me of Las Vegas.

Also remember even if you get this to work - LED bulbs do fail so you would need a plan to fix this each time a bulb goes out. Not my cup of tea and just too much of a PITA

[Blue Batmobile]

I think of the movie Christmas Vacation with all the lights on the roof of the house.

B@t™

[Alec_fields]

So I just got my JDM tails to do the LED conversion so those pictures will be up hopefully after this weekend, However I also built a pair of front turn/daytime running lights. Going to be installed under a frosted lens to avoid the "individual" LED look. Yellow will go on the bottom and the white on top......

Whatcha think?

[dustthisnsx]

Photoshop concept application. Only a few more days till the installed photos are up.... waiting on the JDM tails

every led iteration I've come across appears as if it belongs in a 90's video game... Theres just so much surface area that even with the leds it still feels old somehow. Some kind of diffuse layer as mentioned above would help though. Something like the above 'light pipe' examples where the led is pointing upwards or to the side may work to but could be difficult to match to the vehicles styling cool project none the less

[comtec]

So I just got my JDM tails to do the LED conversion so those pictures will be up hopefully after this weekend, However I also built a pair of front turn/daytime running lights. Going to be installed under a frosted lens to avoid the "individual" LED look. Yellow will go on the bottom and the white on top......

Whatcha think?

A frosted diffuser will probably be more then you need. It will soften the light too much and you will lose some of the brightness. A clear diffuser is probably be a better option. Both are available at home improvement stores and are large enough to do the whole assembly in one piece. Below is an example of frosted and clear with a single LED.

Mike

[PHOEN$X]

Have a gander at the LED tail lights on this new Polish supercar. Hmmm.

[comtec]

Spacing looks strange, like they forgot to line them up.


Mike

[Alec_fields]

Damn....that's a pretty sharp looking car. Copying my tails! except the other slant. So I got the front turn signals and DTR lights up and running. The version ones were pretty sick. Still a little work to do until they are NSX worthy. I underestimated the brightness of the LED's though.....more light diffusion needed to kill the "individual" LED look. It really gave a modern look to the NSX though. I was pretty surprised.

[Alec_fields]

Well the front turn signals and DTR lights are done. LED strips with the DRT lights running horizontally on top and the yellow turns below. I frosted the lenses and it blends together better than the clear lenses. Tails are wired and relays figured out after much brainstorming.

Now just waiting for the new lenses to come in....gotta get rid of the crack! oops

[Hapa88]

This is 90% of the look I was trying to go for. If you could get this to look like a "light tube", maybe with the method similar to the ones below, I'd be all over it!

[Alec_fields]

I was going to try the "light tube" but I tried with a 1/4 tube of plexi that I kept straight and did the cuts and all that and frosted the outside....but the light faded a LOT after the first 2 inches or so. I think you have to evenly cut each cut slightly deeper as you get away from the LED to keep the light uniform. I just did the LED strip because I wanted to keep the uniformity between the white DTR's and the yellow turn signals. In that picture you can see them individually but if its not in direct sun light you just see a blue-ish white strip across the top of the lens. I'm going to keep experimenting though. These are the version 1.0 front turns.

[PHOEN$X]

I like the tail lights in this concept. More photos here.

[comtec]

I was going to try the "light tube" but I tried with a 1/4 tube of plexi that I kept straight and did the cuts and all that and frosted the outside....but the light faded a LOT after the first 2 inches or so.

1/4" would be a little small for that and you should be using rod, not tube. It would require a strong LED that is inset in the plexi. Frosting will not work well especially not on the front. You can buy aluminum tape that is shinny on the adhesive side which you can use on everything but the front and you may need to use an LED on both ends. ACRYLITE would be the best to use.


Mike

[Alec_fields]

PHOEN$X those are pretty sick tails but I don't much care for the elevated part in the middle. I think it would look much better just straight across.

Comtech I didn't use a tube I don't know why I said that. Its solid all the way through. It's about the same size as the one in the video above. I could try one on each end to make it brighter. I didn't frost the front face of it. Just used normal foil on the back and frosted the sides but the light just faded quickly. I glued the LED in with clear nail polish too. I figure there may be something better to transmit the light. I'll work on another of those but I need to get the tails finished before I go back to the turns. I'll have a video of the tails up tomorrow.

[Alec_fields]

Well they are finished. From this thread you can see it from sketch to actually being installed on my car! This first video I took isn't the greatest. It's too dark to be able to see the lights in less than a red blur. I'll put up another one tomorrow. What's everyone think??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vTG0mbWOxM&feature=plcp

[comtec]

Looking pretty good Alec. Man those look bright!

fyi for your post above. They use the nail pollish to turn the white from the drilled hole clear. As you probably know, when you drill clear plastic it become opaque where the bit has cut the plastic. The nail polish is a cheap and easy way to help bring back some of the transparency. Normally they apply the nail polish to the drilled hole and let it dry before inserting the led.

Mike